The House impeachment managers are confident the evidence is strong enough to convict former President Donald Trump of “incitement of insurrection.”
The managers, headed by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), released a statement after they filed a brief outlining their case against Trump.
“The facts are compelling and the evidence is overwhelming. After months of spreading his Big Lie that he won a landslide victory in the 2020 election, leading up to and on January 6, 2021, President Trump summoned, assembled and incited a violent mob that attacked the Capitol, cost the lives of three police officers and four other people, threatened the Vice-President and Congress, and successfully halted the counting of the Electoral College vote,” the managers wrote.
They added, “Trump’s responsibility for the vicious January 6 insurrection is unmistakable.”
Statement after House impeachment brief released by House impeachment managers…. pic.twitter.com/2bcs81hPTi
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) February 2, 2021
They argued the Senate’s responsibility to hear the case against Trump is “clear and unavoidable.”
The managers stressed there is no “January exception” to the Constitution allowing the president to “organize a coup or incite an armed insurrection in his final weeks in office.”
They implored the Senate to convict Trump and prohibit him from holding office ever again.
“We must protect the Republic from any future dangerous attacks he could level against our constitutional order,” the managers concluded.
Forty five out of 50 Republican senators voted to declare Trump’s impeachment trial unconstitutional, as IJR reported.
Some have expressed doubt over whether there will be enough votes to convict Trump.
President Joe Biden said he does not believe there will be enough support.
“The Senate has changed since I was there, but it hasn’t changed that much,” Biden told CNN last month.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters, “It’s extraordinarily unlikely that the president will be convicted.”
The former president parted ways with the lead lawyers who were working on his defense on Saturday and announced his new legal team on Sunday, as IJR reported.